Vegetarian toddler very picky

[Teaandwater]

I am currently childming a little boy who is 18 months, minding him 6 months. His parents are bringing him up vegetarian. Over the last month he has literally refused any dinner I have made, some of which where his favourites. I make everything from scratch and really make sure the meals I am cooking are nutritious and healthy.

I do a lot of batch cooking so freezer is full of his meals that he now refuses to eat. I have told Dad at pick ups that he has not eaten his dinner and he always seems a bit shocked even though he has regularly told me that they find it hard to get him to eat vegetables in their house.

I've actually started to dread dinnertime as I know he will refuse to eat I'm throwing so much food in the bin.

Any advice on what I should do?

I'm a life long vegetarian and now vegan but it's a total myth that human bodies lose the capacity to digest meat after not eating it for a while. Especially for a toddler who would be very adaptable to introducing meat.
What often happens is people have gastric distress after reintroducing meat and assume that means they have lost the capacity to digest it but it's not the case.

My child eats meat, we are vegetarian, but we weren’t confident we’d get her diet right so she eats meat half the week. She used to eat a wide variety of foods but refuses to eat things for months at a time and then suddenly loves them again. It is pretty normal!

She loved chickpea curry and black bean chilli, now won’t touch them! I just roll with it - sometimes if she won’t eat dinner I will do a sort of carbonara where I just crack egg and cheese on pasta and cook it all together, used to throw in peas and sweetcorn but now put veg on the side. We cook rice noodle with egg and have a few veg on the side too! There’ve been days she’s had oat crackers, cheese and cucumber after refusing dinner. The main thing is not to make a fuss, if you can sit nearby and eat a little of the same food it may encourage him. I tend to talk about the veg and how interesting they look (broccoli/cauliflower- little trees) which encourages her. Sometimes I make a game of it - splitting open sugar snap peas and doing the voices of the peas begging not to be eaten. Cheesy black bean quesadillas could be an idea, cauliflower cheese or some kind of butterbean in white sauce dish. If he is allowed tofu that could be an idea too - my daughter loves tofu! Cookies and Kate website have a recipe for a sweet potato burger which my daughter loves. Cheat days we get the crosta & mollica flatbreads, put on some mutti pizza sauce and sprinkle on mozarella with some mushrooms, red onion and goats cheese. We eat mostly unprocessed but she did try waitrose vegan sausages this am and loved them!

What tosh

@KoalaKoKo @MyDucksArentInARow

Thank you, some good advice.

Yeah because kids that eat mean are never picky 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

How many kids will only eat chicken nuggets and chips?!? Won’t touch veg, won’t eat dairy … this is such crap!

Some people are so narrow minded and uneducated it scary.

If you’re going to be snarky at another poster, it’s always best to ensure your grammar, punctuation and spelling is on point.

The poster was right question as it makes no sense for a childminder not to know that kids can be fussy eaters. I mean, I knew that when I was a child myself. I’m sure most adults are aware, certainly ones who look after children. Not sure what SPaG has to do with anything.

It is never a win when you attack someones SaG but you do you ! The op is supposed to be a up on child development her jumping on vitamin.deficency is a bit of an over reaction.

This thread is weirdly and slyly judgemental.The fact the child is vegetarian is neither here nor there. The issue is he’s become picky about food.

Find out what he eats at home and try that, OP. If that doesn’t work, try basic meals, and if that doesn’t work, try making the meals visually exciting. Tedious but it worked for a picky eater of mine. I made faces, animals, etc. Also, keeping foods separate can help when children go through a stage of fussy eating.

I am vegetarian and have brought my children up vegetarian. I have never read such rubbish in my life!

He is only 18 months old. He doesn't need to eat huge quantities. He is picky but so are lots of children at that age.

Let him have the things he likes - eggs, cheese, yoghurt, milk, fruit, veggies and cereals if he will take them, and try the odd new thing. Organic baked beans were a good, quick snack for my two when they were little. Pasta sauces with hidden veggies (ie basic tomato pasta sauce with cooked veggies - blended before being served) also went down well.

I am a bit concerned that you think spaghetti hoops and/or a waffle would be a good fallback if the parents weren't against UPFs. Annabel Karmel does a good toddler veggie cookbook which is full of good ideas. I still use some of her recipes now. There is also a good River Cottage book on veggie cooking for toddlers.

How about a sweet potato and cinnamon lentil dhal? I added carrots sometimes, and butternut squash, spinach sometimes. It’s in the wean in 15 joe wickes book. I blended it down for a smooth texture. The cinnamon and sweet potato make it appealing to toddlers

I’d ask the parents to send some meals they know he eats.

Then see if he will eat the at your and ask for the ingredients and instructions and see what they see to use.

I’d stop batch cooking and literally give him the stuff you know he’ll eat. Let the parents know what he’s had so they can make up the deficiencies themselves?
There’s little point in lovingly crafting nutritionally balanced meals you know will be going in the bin.

FFS! Being vegetarian isn’t a restrictive diet! 🙄 There are millions of vegetarians all round the world.

And yes, the OP should totally add meat to his meals….if she wants to be sued!

If I was the parents I would be annoyed that you'd just hand my child over saying they didn't eat their dinner, I don't think that's reasonable. Just feed him what he likes to eat. If that's egg, toast, yoghurt and berries for lunch and dinner that's fine, he's got nutrition and won't go hungry. It's his parents job to expand his diet as they wish not your problem to worry about. You just need to make sure he isn't hungry. We had a childminder like this once and I moved my DD because I was fed up hearing she'd cooked some complicated meal that my child had refused to eat so I'm collecting them late after work and now have to make them another meal. Not helpful at all.

I agree with the suggestion that the parents should provide you with a couple of of favourite meals and see if it's a behaviour or taste thing. Good luck.

A lot of little ones start being fussy around this age, regardless of being a veggie.
My middle child was baby lead weaned and he ate everything then when he was around 2 he started turning down food he had always eaten.
I would do a ‘picky tea’ and give him things you know he will eat. Finger sandwiches, homemade cheese straws, cucumber sticks and fruit, jacket potato, yoghurt, homemade pitta bread pizza fingers.
Soup was always a hit for some random reason, I’m guessing because it was a smooth texture and he could dip things into it.
All you can do is offer it, it’s down to his parents to feed him again when he gets home if he hasn’t eaten much at yours.
My childminder offers tea, and then depending on how much ours has eaten he always has something when he gets home.

Hi OP. Mum to two fussy eaters from birth - now 4 and 2 and much, much better. Mine also went through an eggs, fruit and toast phase. Don’t stress. That’s pretty good going for 18 months.

Your meals sound lovely but my kids would not have touched it at that age because it’s all too “together” and they wanted things very separate. Those bowls with separate compartments worked well for mine to make sure nothing was touching. I would go back to basics for tea. He likes toast and cheese from what you’ve said so I’d be doing things like pasta with blended chopped tomatoes, stock cube and double cream in one compartment, toast fingers in another and cheese in the other. The following day do a (chopped) jacket potato with butter, cheese and toast in the other compartments. Fruit for pudding. I know there’s not much veg but I’d try and get him eating the basic staples like pasta and potatoes and gradually add in veggies. Once he accepts things like the pasta, for example, you can switch out one of the other compartments to carrots etc. It’s slow going but the idea is to work off what he currently enjoys eating with a bit of something new as well.

The one random hit my kids loved (and still love) was mushroom soup. No idea why but if you get stuck for ideas, it’s worth a try.

Honestly there are some small minded people on this chat. Open your mind, read a book, learn something

Another mum of two vegetarian children here (4yo and 5yo, both high percentile for height and weight and happily do junior ParkRun most weekends along with cycling, swimming and hiking so certainly not lacking anything!). Easy vegetarian meals that might be worth trying...

• roast veg (tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions) blend it up and add a bit of bicarb to reduce acidity, then serve with pasta and cheese (do all three separately if you want). Also work well with gnocchi, especially if you bake it in the oven with cheese on top
• falafel wraps with grated carrot, cream cheese/hummus, cucmber (again, can all be separate)
• scrambled eggs/hard boiled eggs/fried with toast (mine will only in the white part of the egg)
• tofu fingers with mashed potatoes (get firm tofu, slice, dip in beaten egg, dip in panko bread crumbs and fry) and chopped raw veg (mine eat raw veg happily but are much funnier about cooked veg)
• stir fry noodles with raw pepper and cauliflowe on the side and scrambled tofu or quorn (though that's probably upf)
• home made chips with a variety of dips (hummus, cream cheese, tzatziki, roast veg)

My two also LOVE mushroom soup despite both refusing to eat mushrooms! Carrot and lentil soup also goes down pretty reliably and I'll often serve with cream cheese on toast if I feel they need more calories.

Haven't read all the comments, so sorry if it's already been mentioned. Could you try doing his main meal at lunch time and the foods you know he'll eat at tea time. He might be more amenable to trying more at lunch time than at the end of the day when he's tired.

100% agree on both points!